Here is how to do it with cell arrays:
a = rand; d = rand; w=rand;
condition1=logical(randi([0 1],1)); % This is just for generating examples
if condition1
savelist = {'a'};
else
savelist = {'d'};
end
savelist = [savelist, {'w'}];
disp(savelist)
filename='testfile.mat';
save(filename,savelist{:})
